The Marble Hall Diaries

Well, well, well. What can I say? Not much as my throat is not in a good way after spending most of the evening at the Emirates last night.  Arsenal Football Club are Premier League champions. 22 years we have waited to be back where we belong. I've been a fan pretty much since birth, where I was bestowed with an Arsenal baby grow as my first piece of proper clothing (which is still in my mum's loft, doesn't fit as well these days).  Our first title win of my lifetime was in 1998, when I was 1 years old, so obviously I have fond memories of sinking pints in celebration. Pints of milk, that is. Then came 2002, probably getting into some of my first ever memories of supporting Arsenal as a child, but these are nothing more than a few screenshots of Henry and co. and I can't tell what's a memory and what is an image I've seen as an adult that I've confused with a memory.  Our previous title win, you know, before our most recent one RIGHT NOW, was a special invi...

Good morning all.  My heart still hasn't stopped racing and my body is still in fight or flight. How about you?  Yesterday, Arsenal smoothly and easily secured an uneventful 1-0 win away at West Ham. Arsenal's critics have been right all season, we are a boring team who plays boring matches that nobody bothers to watch. The only things that made the game any interesting were just the small matters of the humongous stakes at play, the injuries to our fullbacks, the fact we had to substitute a substitute due to the manager needing to correct his original big decision to play our DM at RB, West Ham missing a gilt-edged chance to go 1-0 up, Trossard scoring a momentous goal and a teeny weeny VAR call to rule out a West Ham equaliser at the end of the game. Hang on a second, something isn't adding up here. Maybe these critics are wrong? Maybe they are actually mostly just people with agendas trying to say anything to throw dirt on Arsenal's name and discredit any success the...

Good freaking morning to all you beautiful people.  Since my last post, a couple of great things have happened. First, that very evening after I hit send, David Moyes' tricky blue army secured a HUGE draw against Man City (could've been even better but I'm not getting hung up on that). It means the title is firmly in our hands now and we have even stronger clarity on our mission in the Premier League - win 3 games, win the league. Couldn't be more simple, right? We have to do our best to remain in 'one-game-at-a-time' territory, with a tricky away trip to relegation-fighting West Ham next. More on that later... In even bigger news, some would say, last night I was there to witness what has to be one of the greatest nights of the Emirates Stadium's lifetime. Arsenal Football Club are in a Champions League Final. Yes, you read that right, it wasn't a dream, we did it. I thought we performed so maturely, so controlled, a shining example of how to navigate a...

Good evening on a wonderful May Bank Holiday here in the UK, and Happy Star Wars Day to all those who celebrate.  Tonight, we watch (or in my case, stay far away from) to see if the mighty Everton can bring down the evil sky blue monsters better known as Manchester City. I only have half-hope that we get the outcome that we want, City dropping points, and I refuse to let the hope-ometer fill any more or else I'll risk my spirits being crushed beyond repair.  But before we talk any more about all that scary stuff, let's cast our minds back to a sunny-but-rainy early Saturday evening in North London... The starting XI for the Fulham game was interesting, I'd even say exciting, and I was really intrigued to see how Myles Lewis-Skelly would get on in his first Premier League start in central midfield. It was great to see the manager take a bit of a risk with the lineup despite it being a pressure game that gave us an opportunity to put extra pressure on Man City ahead of their ...

Hello all,  It is the eve of our next stress-filled nail-biting Premier League game against Fulham, and I am coming to you to provide some late reflections on the Atlético Madrid game, before previewing the league game tomorrow.  For the majority of the first leg showdown in Madrid, I thought our performance level was raised just as the seeming pressure around the team was lowered, which is really strange considering it was a Champions League semi-final. I think there is just so much pressure on the Premier League that the Champions League has offered somewhat of a reprieve from it all. It's like our campaign in that competition has existed in a nice bubble where we never lose and our performance levels have a clear floor.  Still, I thought we controlled large parts of the game and played well at a tough ground away from home. The shops in Madrid had their toilet paper raided faster than the pandemic times, which is ironic given most of what Atlético displayed o...

Well I'm so glad our performance against Man City was the springboard for Arsenal's free-flowing attack finally being unlocked and unleashed for the final five games of the run-in, aren't you?  Yes, last Saturday evening Arsenal reverted back to type and ground out a stressful, bordering on torturous, 1-0 win over strugglers Newcastle. Am I happy with the three points? Absolutely, I think this is one of our trickier games in the run-in despite Newcastle's recent poor form. Am I happy with the lack of goals to add to our goal difference when that could be the deciding factor of this title race? Nope. Am I happy with the performance overall? Also no! Firstly, the positives:  I thought Eze was our brightest spark (before this was extinguished) and his goal was a fantastic bit of magic that is really needed in these tight late-season games.  I thought Hincapié's performance was strong, battle-hardened in the face of adversity, when we needed a warrior to shield us from ...